Welcome!
You’ve taken a really important step towards better health and well-being.
I’m going to be alongside you as long as you need me, but if I’m doing my job well, your knowledge and confidence to self-manage your condition will increase and it will become second nature for you.
First up, I’m free. You don’t need wi-fi or the internet, and it doesn’t cost you anything to receive or send messages to me, including on a pay-as-you-go phone with no credit. Have you added me to your contacts yet?
Just so you know, I am a robot – it won’t always feel like that, but it’s important you remember your responses are not monitored live. The readings and responses you send will help you and your clinicians build a fuller picture of your health, so the more you send, the more accurate it will be and the greater impact on your health.
Your responses are stored on a dashboard which only your clinicians have access to; they will review it regularly. If your readings start to look out of trend, or I do not hear from you for a while, they will be alerted. The more engaged you are the more improvements in your healthcare you will see.
I hope you won’t want to, but you can text STOP to stop receiving messages from me. If you are thinking about this, speak to your clinician as they can adapt the timings and frequency of my texts to better suit your needs.
Well done for taking such an important step, and I look forward to supporting you on this important journey to better health and wellbeing.
Text you soon, Flo
Your clinician has referred you to Florence to provide you with additional support between your scheduled appointments, and where appropriate, provide you with a convenient way to report information about your health, to support your clinician make decisions about your care.
Florence or Flo will help you manage your own health better by keeping in touch with you using text messages to your mobile phone.
Clinicians have used their expertise to develop care pathways for a variety of conditions or situations, so you can be sure that the advice Florence gives you is safe to follow.
Flo will send you a mixture of prompts for clinical measurements, such as BP or BG readings, alongside tailored advice and information to help you look after your health and lifestyle needs and provide insight to your healthcare team between your scheduled appointments.
No!
If you are receiving messages from Flo or replying to her from the UK, you will NOT be charged for the messages – you can even use Flo if you have a pay-as-you-go phone with no credit.
Flo can be used worldwide, but messages will be charged at your network rate outside of the UK.
Florence’s number (64711) is a free to text short code that will not charge for any messages you send to or receive from Florence. Some UK mobile phone network providers identify all 5-digit short code numbers as costly and inform via an automated customer service message that “you may be charged.” However, when using 64711 for Florence please be assured that you will never be charged for any messages you send or receive. Florence is regulated by the Phone Paid Services Authority in the UK and further confirmation of Florence as a free to text number can be found on their website here
Occasionally a UK mobile provider may in certain contractual circumstances decide to impose a bar on short code numbers similar to those that are commonly applied for network roaming outside of the UK. In these circumstances this bar may prevent you from sending messages to Florence. If this happens, the short code bar can usually be lifted by calling and making a request to your mobile network’s customer service team.
If you have a holiday planned, and you don’t want to receive messages while you ‘re away, just text Flo “AWAY”. When you return, you can simply text “HOME” to start receiving Flo’s messages again.
If, for whatever reason, you want to stop using Florence, all you need to do is text “STOP” and no further messages will be sent. Your clinician will be notified about your decision to opt out.
We do, however, strongly recommend you speak to your clinician to ensure a suitable alternative to help you manage your health can be put in place before making the decision to opt out. The timing and frequency of Flo’s messages can be adapted to fit better with your needs, for example.
Florence only stores the following information to allow your healthcare provider to identify you when using our secure platform services:
– Your message interactions with Florence
– Your mobile phone number
– Your title, first/last name, date of birth, and sex.
Florence may also record your NHS number to support the anonymous transfer of any clinically relevant information or measurements that you provide as defined by your healthcare professional, via your message interactions.
Florence transmits and stores your data in encrypted form. This means nobody else can read it without the right credentials. Amazon Web Services (AWS) are the cloud provider we use and are compliant with NHS PSS Level 2 standards and certified ISO/IEC 27018:2014 – ‘Information and Security techniques’ – Code of practices for protection of personally identifiable information in public clouds.
Safeguards are in place by appropriate firewalls (Web Application Firewall, AWS), and is hosted in a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).
We meet the highest standards of safety and security, as set by NHS bodies and the government and we regularly check our systems are secure via outside independent experts.
Please see below for our formal accreditations for assurance your data is safe:
– NHS Digital Data Security and Protection Toolkit assured (ODS code: 8KH50)
– ISO27001 certified.
– UK Government’s Cyber Essentials certification
– Florence Privacy Notice
We have full assurance of Florence for integration with the EMIS Partner API Program for EMIS Web GP, CCMH, & Clinical Services, as well as being assured to integrate with TPP’s SystmOne via Black Pear Software (FHIR compliant).
